Book of the Way
by Jade Aestas
Summary: When Briar meets a refugee from Gyongxe with amazing magical powers, will she be able to heal his war torn heart?
1. The Emperor of Yanjing

31 May 2007

by: Jade Aestas

Disclaimer: I do not own this universe (Emelan, etc) or any of the characters mentioned here except Zhi and Cai Geng. Don't be discouraged if you don't get why Briar/Daja/Sandry/Tris etc are missing here, I decided you need to see Zhi first. This is a Briar fic, mostly, and a romance. Also, it is my FIRST EVER FANFIC, so be nice!!!!

Comments are good, we like comments!

**Book of the Way**

Zhi Geng plunged headlong into the Bengbu river, her tired body protesting painfully as she forced her arms and legs to carry her to the other side. Distantly she could hear the sound of hunting dogs as the Yanjingi army scouts desperately searched for any sign of her passage. Knowing they faced Imperial executioners if they failed to capture her sparked a glimmer of pity in her mind as she fled, but not enough to stay her. Zhi's fate would be far worse than death if she ever knelt at the feet of the emperor again.

_If? _She thought, sputtering as she surfaced and the rage of the river forced water past her lips into her oxygen-starved lungs, _More likely a matter of when_. No one escaped the Imperial will- no one. But she had to try. It was that or continue to live as an unwilling pawn in his mad drive to conquer Gyongxe.

Zhi and her sister Cai had been the unwilling guests of His Imperial Majesty for the past year- Zhi forced to use her magic to heal entire battalions of his soldiers in seconds, always with the threat hanging above her that Cai would be tortured if she did not. Not even the bandits who had murdered their parents and burned their village inspired such fear and rage in Zhi's heart as did the emperor of Yanjing, but she had done as he commanded, keeping his armies strong against wounds, disease and other deadly affects of war. Cai was all she had left, and the emperor had used that last vestige of humanity against Zhi- promising her that Cai would not be harmed unless she refused to do as he wished.

But no more. Zhi's throat tightened and she sank briefly below the surface of the river once more as she fought the surging memories. Cai had been dancing in front of the emperor, a child-like, self-taught sort of dance that she had made up for Zhi and performed for both of them. But just as she turned a cartwheel, a poison dart had flown at the emperor out of a fold in the pavilion cloth, piercing her leg and sending her tumbling to the floor. Zhi had watched in horror as the young sister she had given up everything to protect shuddered violently and lay still. It was the fastest acting poison she had ever seen, meant to assassinate an emperor at the very feet of his best healer. But the rot-festering _belbun_ had missed, striking instead the only innocent person in the Imperial Army encampment.

And so she had run. Knowing he now had nothing left to force her with, the emperor had turned the encampment inside out searching for the assassin. In the fury and panic as commanders and footmen alike scrambled to obey, no one had thought to hold onto Zhi, who had never before attempted to flee. She had spent several long seconds on her knees, cradling her sister's body, but when her head came up to look at the emperor as he shouted orders and threatened his men with torture, death, and profanity, her eyes were dull with a rage so suppressed that she barely even noticed it. Her only thoughts had been of escaping.

She had slipped silently out of the Imperial pavilion and dashed to her tent nearby. A quick search had revealed several stashes of food, which she tucked into her green healer's tunic, and then she was gone again.

It was only as she was passing the last of the sentries that her anger had caught up with her. Now, she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the pictures it brought to mind. She had used her magic, the beautiful, clean, healers' magic that her mother had named her for, to reach within their chests and starve them of air until each sank to the ground, their faces purple. Zhi had never thought of that before, that a healer could just as easily kill someone with their magic as heal them, and she didn't want to think of it now.

She yanked her mind away from the idea and strained for the far edge of the river. It was far; not so much that she could have drown in the attempt, but she was tired from a night spent in fear and in hiding, and the healing magic that came so easily to her in aid of others did not work on herself. Finally she gained the other side and crawled up the bank to rest a moment in the soft grass that marked the edge of the riverside still belonging to Gyongxe. Somewhere miles ahead lay her destination- the first Living Circle Temple. Though Zhi was a Taei and did not believe in the Living Circle, she knew they would take her in once they discovered she could heal. The trick would be keeping them from realizing just how much healing power she really had.


	2. Refugees

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters except Zhi and Cai Geng.

_Winding Circle Temple, in Emelan_

Briar Moss dragged himself out of a nightmare, drowning in the fire and bloodshed. Jerking his head to rid himself of the stench of burnt flesh and the visions of war, he smacked his head against that of the young wench sleeping beside him. She awoke with a small whimper of pain, and tumbled to the floor in a heap. Gasping in indignation, she sat up with a glare for the handsome mage, "What was that for?!" she demanded, highly affronted at having been so rudely awakened by her lover.

"Mmm, sorry," was his grumbled reply.

Furious, she scrambled to her feet and slapped him across the face. Seeing that his only reaction was to look slightly more awake, she repeated the gesture- harder this time. When it looked like she might go for a third, he caught her wrist, "Enough!" he snapped, "I get the point."

"Ah," she said sarcastically, "so this is how the great Briar Moss treats women. I'll be sure to let everyone know." and she stomped out of the room in a huff.

"Great," Briar groaned softly, "I'll be sleeping alone for a month." Briar was usually kind, but when memories of Gyongxe slipped into his dreams they made everything else seem petty and meaningless. That was why he contrived so often to have someone sweet and pliable in his arms every night- to ward off the nightmares. But lately, not even that could keep the stench of death out of his dreams.

A moment later however, he was glad she had left for Evvy burst into the room crying, "Briar! There are refugees coming!" and ran out again. Shaking his head, Briar dressed and followed her.

Refugees piled in the front gates and Briar struggled with his own graphic memories. Why in Lakik's name did they have to be brought _here_? A healer grabbed his arm, whipping him around and snapped, "Help, or get out of the way, boy!"

Her words, so much like what Rosethorn might have said if she'd caught hi wool-gathering in the middle of a crisis, woke him enough that he stumbled to the side so the woman could pass.

A second healer shoved blankets into his arms and said shortly, "hand them out." Shaking his head fiercely, Briar did as he was told. Handing a blanket to the first child he saw, he started to push his way through the crowd, trying not to wince as the moans stirred his nightmares.

A young woman stumbled into him, almost falling. Dropping his load on the grass, he caught and held her up until she steadied. She struggled for a moment wearily, but he said hastily, "It's ok, you're safe!" She met his eyes for an instant, and then twisted in his grip to face the hillside bellow where the refugees pouring in the gates clustered. Reaching out a trembling hand, she healed them, all of them.

Briar stared at the young woman in his arms. With her thin face and almost boyish frame under his hands as he held her up by her hips, she looked far younger than he, yet the healing she had just done was far beyond that of any great mage he had ever heard of.

"Well, that was interesting," he commented wryly to her. She turned to face him, her eyes betraying her fear, but before he could reassure her, they rolled back in their sockets and she fainted in his arms.

"Huh," was all he could think to say. Lifting her more securely into his arms, he went to find Rosethorn and Lark.


	3. Discipline Cottage at Winding Circle

Disclaimer: I do not own this universe or any of the characters here except Zhi and Cai Geng. The lovely and talented Tamora Pierce owns them!

_Discipline Cottage_

_Why did I do that?_ The first thoughts that entered Zhi's mind as she woke to find herself on a soft cot in some sort of gardener's workshop were of how stupid she had been. Why had she healed them like that, and in front of that boy too? It was generosity like that which had gotten her into this mess in the first place.

But she knew why she had done it. The young man who had caught her had filled her somehow with feelings she had not experienced since Cai had died, all those months ago. _Brilliant, Zhi!_ She thought to herself. _Some soft boy tells you you're safe and you go to __believe him just like that?_

"I brought you some broth," A young woman, about Zhi's age walked into the room. How she had known Zhi was awake was a mystery, but the smile on her face and the soup bowl in her hands were doubly welcome. She had spoken in Imperial, the language Zhi had learned in her short stay with the Living Circle Temple in Gyongxe-- before the Yanjingi Emperor had wiped them out. She wondered now if this young woman, who was obviously a noble from the clothes she wore, even cared that so many had died.

Glancing out the window, she could see no other refugees in sight and knew immediately that it was only because of the young man that _she_ had a cot at all. He had probably told this noble what she had done-- that she had healed so many with a glance. Did that make her a captive? She glanced warily around the room. It did not look like any place that could hold a prisoner, but then, she thought bitterly, the emperor had not needed bars either. Well, these people had nothing to threaten her with, unlike the Yanjingi had. Without Cai, there was nothing left to force her to heal and heal and heal until her powers gave out.

_This noble will soon find that out, and it will be back to the refugee camp for me_. She thought cynically. But as she took the soup from the noble girl's hands, she mumbled a grudging, "Thank you." There was no need to be rude, after all.

"I'm Sandry;" the girl said cheerfully, "Briar is the one who brought you here. Do you remember?"

Zhi glanced around for the boy, but he was nowhere to be seen, "Yeah, he grabbed me right before I fainted," she answered, "Where am I?"

"This is Discipline," Sandry replied, "it's the cottage where the mage born are always brought, if they need training or rest."

"Mage born?" Zhi repeated quizzically, "I'm no mage."

"You're a healer," The woman who entered the room now was a short, stout dedicate with a green habit and short-cropped hair. Her bare feet were covered in a thin layer of dirt and she carried a potted plant in her hands, "Briar says a very powerful one as well, but you wore yourself out, healing so many at once. You need to learn to control your use of it, girl!" The woman's gaze was as sharp as her words, and Zhi thought, _I wouldn't want to cross this lady!_

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zhi tried, knowing it was useless at this point, but too scared to admit it quite yet.

"Hmph," was the Dedicate's reply, but she said nothing else.

"Why don't you bring your soup, and we can talk about it in the kitchen?" Sandry suggested tactfully, "Lark would like to meet you as well, but Rosethorn's workshop is a bit small for all four of us."

"Who?"

"This is Dedicate Rosethorn," Sandry introduced them, "Lark is the other Dedicate here at Discipline Cottage. What is your name?"

"Zhi Geng, of Gyongxe," the girl replied softly.

"Where did you learn Imperial?" Sandry asked as they made there way out of the workshop and into the main room of the cottage. Zhi saw that the kitchen had a wooden table on which she placed her bowl of soup.

"At the Living Circle Temple in Gyongxe," Zhi said, "I reached it a few months before the Yanjingi." She added.

"Were you there when they arrived?" Rosethorn asked, startled. When Zhi nodded, Rosethorn said, "So were we. I'm sorry."

"You were there? Why?" Zhi asked.

"We were at the Yanjingi court when we heard of the emperor's plan to invade. We ran to warn them."

Zhi gaped at Rosethorn, "you're the plant mage! The one who made such a mess of His army!"

"She had help," Briar had entered the room again.


End file.
